In the last two weeks Kansas has released its new classifications followed by the district assignments. It happens the same time every two years and like clockwork it happened again this year.

The new classes and districts always spark some discussion. It’s fun but pretty straight forward. What always follows is when will Missouri release its new classes.

Well the old answer was usually the following April. Enrollment counts were taken in the fall and after corrections or something they would be released for football in the spring. This was done every two years and even though I couldn’t figure out why it took Missouri 6-7 months to do what Kansas did in about two weeks.

Well that doesn’t matter anymore because several changes will move that April release to much later. Starting in 2018 counts will not be taken until April and will only include grades 9-11 when in the past fall counts all four grades were counted.

So, since the count will be taken later you would assume Missouri would change the long lag time and release in a couple of weeks much like Kansas. You would be wrong in that assumption. Next year the classes will be released after official practice begins in August. Yes, August.

That just seems way too late. The first I heard of this I was thinking why would anyone want to put together their schedule not knowing what class or district they would be in. Then I remember most teams in Missouri are much like colleges and schedule way in advance so that doesn’t change much.

Ok so why the late count and why the late release. Well I’m being told there has been an issue with some schools and numbers. So much that some schools have dropped programs or in the case of smaller Class 1 schools decided to drop to 8-man football right before the season starts.

The hope is with the later release of classes open spots in districts are less likely to occur and it will allow Classes 1-4 to have a full 64 team roster. Then after the top 32 are placed in 6 the overflow will be in Class 5 where there have long been byes in the first round of the postseason.

So, what does this all mean? Well we must wait a little longer on the class assignments and it will now be done every year. Good with bad in my mind.

I think it will all be fine but the one question I have and have had for years is why does it take months to decide on an enrollment count in one state and two weeks in another.